


Planet of FEAR !!!

by kurtoons



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Robots, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 20:10:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15826071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurtoons/pseuds/kurtoons
Summary: What if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written for John W. Campbell ?  A fragment, re-casting a Sherlock Holmes passage as Old School SF.Damn adding machine. Someday I'd like to get my hands on the wiseguy who programmed him with that sense of humor.





	Planet of FEAR !!!

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short piece I wrote as an exercise in a writing group I'm in. The challenge was to take a passage from an existing story, (in this case it was the opening of _The Valley of Fear_ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), and re-write it to reflect one of my interests, as determined by what books happen to be on my bookshelf. We were permitted to make any changes we liked, so long as the piece contained Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and a Letter from Porlock.
> 
> This is my first stab at the challenge, re-casting the opening as the beginning of a story as it might have been published by John W. Campbell.

"Listen, Holmes," I said. 

"Unless my audio sensors are switched off, I am incapable of not listening," SH3LK H0LM7 replied. "If I appear to be ignoring you, let me assure you, Watson, that should you say anything of interest I will devote my full attention."

Damn adding machine. Someday I'd like to get my hands on the wiseguy who programmed him with that sense of humor. His titanium steel fingertips danced gracefully over the keyboard of the communicator screen. I saw he had received a message and he was running the analytic program. He could do the diagnostic just as quickly himself, of course, but he enjoyed letting other machines do the drudge work.

"I calculate an eighty-seven percent probability that the message is from Porlock. You'll note he adds a dash to his emoticons to represent the nose of the smiley, an archaic affectation which went out in the 22nd Century. If Porlock is communicating with me directly it must be a matter of the first importance." He mused for a moment, purely for effect. "If the message is a forgery it would be even more interesting."

I was still annoyed, but the damn robot had tweaked my curiosity. "All right, I'll bite. What's a Porlock?"

I'd swear, if that robot could, H0LM7 would have smiled.

"Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a username; but behind it lies a shifty and evasive personality. In a previous message he boasted that I could never trace his true identity, and in the teeming billions of the Solar System he may well be right. The man is insignificant by himself, but the one he associates with -- ah, that is something different. As a tiny planetoid may orbit a great gas giant, so Porlock orbits a figure of much greater importance; one both formidable and sinister."

"You're getting to the point, Holmes?"

H0LM7 greeted my interruption with a cybernetic stare. "You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?"

Okay. That got my attention. I whistled. "Not that psycho-puppy."

"As you say," I thought the robot's voice carried a note of grim satisfaction; "that psycho-puppy."

\-- "Planet of FEAR !!!" by A. C. Doyle; SPICY SPACE MYSTERY, Sept. 1942


End file.
